1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an irradiation system and, more particularly, to an irradiation system that controls headlamps of a vehicle.
2. Description of Related Art
Generally, in a headlamp system for a vehicle, a driver manually changes headlamps (or headlights) between low beam and high beam. High beam provides an excellent visibility for a driver; however, high beam dazzles a driver of an oncoming vehicle or a pedestrian. Therefore, it is required to appropriately switch between high beam and low beam.
In Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2003-54311 (JP 2003-54311 A), there is suggested a technique for, when it is determined that there is a person in a left-side detection area with respect to a traveling direction of a vehicle, controlling the irradiation range, irradiation direction or illuminance of an illumination unit so as to reduce dazzle of the person.
In the related technique, in order not to dazzle a driver of an oncoming vehicle by controlling the irradiation range of the illumination unit, as shown in FIG. 10A, a shaded area 105a for preventing dazzle of a driver 104 on the basis of the positions of headlamps 102, 103 of an oncoming vehicle 101 is generated.
However, in the above-described related technique, when only one lamp of the oncoming vehicle has been detected because of, for example, a failure of the driver-side headlamp of the oncoming vehicle, it is not possible to shade the driver of the oncoming vehicle, and it is not possible to prevent dazzle.
For example, as shown in FIG. 10B, when only the driver 104-side headlamp 102 of the oncoming vehicle 101 has been detected because of, for example, a failure of the passenger-side headlamp of the oncoming vehicle 101, it is possible to shade the driver 104 of the oncoming vehicle 101 with a shaded area 105b. However, as shown in FIG. 10C, when only the passenger-side headlamp 103 of the oncoming vehicle 101 has been detected because of, for example, a failure of the driver 104-side headlamp of the oncoming vehicle 101, it is not possible to shade the driver 104 of the oncoming vehicle 101, and it is not possible to prevent dazzle.
When shading is carried out with a rectangular shaded area at the time when only the light of a single headlamp has been detected, it is not possible to determine at which side the detected light is placed, the right side or the left side. Therefore, in order to reliably prevent dazzle of the driver of the oncoming vehicle, as shown in FIG. 10D and FIG. 10E, it is required to generate a redundant shaded area 106 or a redundant shaded area 107.